Artists use a variety of inspirations and techniques to arrive at creating a work of art.  In four short films about the 2008 Pew Fellows in painting – Charles Burwell, Matthew Cox, Anne Seidman and Mauro Zamora - students will learn about the influences and sources of material each artist reflects upon within their artistic practices.  An interactive discussion with the artists and filmmaker Glenn Holsten will follow the screenings.

Charles Burwell creates abstract paintings, often times on a large scale that are formally rigorous and visually stimulating. Burwell’s compositions are spatially complex, since the early 1990’s his work has involved a specific layering process that relies on the interaction of the controlled dripped line maze-like linear forms, and organic and geometric forms. His work is a balance of abstraction and representation, figure and ground, organic yet stylized-opposing processes that allow for a multitude of associations.

Matthew Cox creates psychologically charged figurative paintings that are technically ambitious as well as visually intriguing. He constructs narratives that seem to often contain elements of comedy and parody. He is interested in elevating the ordinary occurrences in our everyday lives, and transforming these common events from banal to beautiful. One of his series was created first through text about a fictional criminal family called the Wonderfuls. He later pared down the writing to essential sentences and created the Wonderful Family portraits, each accompanied by its text.

Anne Seidman describes her work as rigorous and controlled, while at the same time allowing room for spontaneity, irony, and consciousness. Seidman’s practice has allowed her to explore the nature of pure painting through abstraction, suggesting friction, awkwardness, and ultimately a sense of self. Her painting relies on a commitment to process, working through the unfamiliar until it becomes recognizable, eventually reaching a resolution.

Mauro Zamora is compelled to make paintings of landscapes although he is not always interested in the landscape itself. Zamora’s images derive from nature, architecture, and print media. He states that his work is rooted in the affects of “care/neglect, entropy/growth, and construction/destruction,” believing that architecture cannot exist without nature and nature cannot exist without architecture. He is most interested in understanding how we are all tied to the land and how its use ebbs and flows throughout our lives.

Pew Fellowships in the Arts, a program of The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, and established by The Pew Charitable Trusts in 1991, awards grants of $60,000 to artists working in a wide variety of performing, visual, and literary disciplines. The grants provide financial support directly to the artists so that they may have the opportunity to dedicate themselves to creative pursuits exclusively.

Photos of artists by Eileen Neff.

Program Outline:

• Welcome/Introductions (1:00 p.m. – 1:05 p.m.)
  The moderator will introduce the program and panelists.
• Screening of Films (1:05 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.)
  Students will watch three short, 5-minute documentaries about each of the panelists.
• Question and Answer Session (1:30 p.m. – 2:10 p.m.)
  The moderator will ask a series of questions to the panelists and then open the dialogue to students at the participating sites. During this time, we will call on sites in alphabetical order to ask a question. Each site will have an opportunity to ask one question, and then we will move onto the next site. If time permits, we will repeat the cycle. Students should prepare questions ahead of time and should be at the microphone, ready to ask their question, prior to the moderator calling on your site.
• Wrap-Up/Final Comments (2:10 p.m. – 2:15 p.m.)

Pre-Videoconference Activities:

• Introduce Students to the Artists: Familiarize students with the artists, their training and their work by visiting the Pew Fellowships in the Arts and other links under Program Resources.
• Brainstorm Questions: Have students come up with questions for our panelists about their fellowships, their backgrounds, education or careers. As a class, choose the top 5 questions. Make sure students are prepared to ask these questions as part of the videoconference event. Each school will have a chance to ask at least 1 question - - but by preparing 5, we can make sure that questions aren't repeated.

Post-Videoconference Activities:

• Reflect: Have students write a written reflection about the program or conduct a classroom dialogue with students. Some questions to consider: what surprised them about one of the artists? How has participating in the program influenced their artistic path or career aspirations?

National Educational Standards:

Participation in this program satisfies the following content standards, as outlined by the Consortium of National Arts Education Associations:

• Understanding the visual arts in relation to history and cultures
• Making connections between visual arts and other disciplines